Key result
Intensive medical therapy for asymptomatic carotid stenosis is associated with a lower 1-year risk of stroke or death (~0.5%) compared to carotid endarterectomy (~2%) or stenting (~4%).
Why the study?
Does intensive medical therapy improve outcomes compared to carotid endarterectomy or stenting in patients with asymptomatic carotid stenosis?
Does intensive medical therapy improve outcomes compared to carotid endarterectomy or stenting in patients with asymptomatic carotid stenosis?
Absolute Event Rate: 0.5% vs 2%
Intensive medical therapy is recommended over carotid endarterectomy or stenting for most patients with asymptomatic carotid stenosis, reserving interventions for a minority with specific high-risk features.
Intensive medical therapy should be prioritized over revascularization for asymptomatic carotid stenosis; challenges current guideline recommendations for intervention.
Patients with asymptomatic carotid stenosis (ACS) are at very high risk of coronary events, so they should all receive intensive medical therapy. What is often accepted as “best medical therapy” is usually suboptimal. Truly intensive medical therapy includes lifestyle modification, particularly smoking cessation and a Mediterranean diet. All patients with ACS should receive intensive lipid-lowering therapy, should have their blood pressure well controlled, and should receive B vitamins for lowering of plasma total homocysteine (tHcy) if levels are high; a commonly missed cause of elevated tHcy is metabolic B12 deficiency, which should be diagnosed and treated. Most patients with ACS would be better treated with intensive medical therapy than with either carotid endarterectomy (CEA) or stenting (CAS). A process called “treating arteries instead of treating risk factors” markedly reduced the risk of ACS in an observational study; a randomized trial vs. usual care should be carried out. The few patients with ACS who could benefit (~15%, or perhaps more if recent evidence regarding the risk of intraplaque hemorrhage is borne out) can be identified by a number of features. These include microemboli on transcranial Doppler, intraplaque hemorrhage, reduced cerebrovascular reserve, and echolucency of plaques, particularly “juxtaluminal black plaque”. No patient should be subjected to CAS or CEA without evidence of high-risk features, because in most cases the 1-year risk of stroke or death with intervention is higher with either CEA (~2%) or CAS (~4%) than with intensive medical therapy (~0.5%). Most patients, particularly the elderly, would be better treated with CEA than CAS. Most strokes can be prevented in patients with ACS, but truly intensive medical therapy is required.
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J. David Spence (2020) conducted a review in Asymptomatic carotid stenosis. Intensive medical therapy vs. Carotid endarterectomy (CEA) or stenting (CAS) was evaluated on Stroke or death. Intensive medical therapy for asymptomatic carotid stenosis is associated with a lower 1-year risk of stroke or death (~0.5%) compared to carotid endarterectomy (~2%) or stenting (~4%).
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